voting behaviour Flashcards
what is voting behaviour?
the way that different people tend to vote.
Why is voting behaviour studied?
so that political scientists, or political psychologists, can understand why certain people vote for different political parties
This enables political parties to plan the policies, communication and select people who best represent them to persuade voters to vote for them at the next election.
How can voting behaviour be divided?
long term and short term
what factors influence how people vote?
age, region, ethnicity, gender and class
How else could you describe long term factors of voting and what does it entail?
it is also called the ‘sociological model’
- this focuses on gender, race, social class, religion etc….
- this model suggests that people would show stronger class alignment as they are more likely to vote for the same party throughout their life
- from 1964 - 1966, 90% of voters claimed to identify with a party
- from 2005 only 10% claimed to be ‘very strong’ party identifiers
what does short term voting entail and what is it also called?
‘the rational choice model’
voters are more likely to show partisan dealignment
- they are less likely to vote for the same party throughout their life as they vote according to specific issues in each election
- it also includes the performance of the governing party, major issues, the electoral campaign, the image of party leaders, the influence of the mass media and major political events (e.g war or economic crisis)
Name an example of the influence of voting behaviour
the red wall seats (how labour’s red walls turned blue for example Hartlepool which was historically labour since 1964)
YouGov poll made in 2022 declared that if a general election were to be called 54% of the vote would go to labour because of current affairs such as economic crisis and 21% would vote for conservatives
